552 BIRDS OF INDIA. 



It is needless to add that it never perches. During the day, if the 

 weather be fine and warm, they sit on the rocks or rugged parts of 

 the hill, without moving much about, except in the morning and 

 evening. When cold and cloudy, and in rainy weatlier, they are 

 very brisk, and are moving about and feeding all day long. When 

 feeding they walk slowly up hill, picking up the tender blades of 

 grass, and young shoots of plants, occasionally stopping to snatch 

 up a certain bulbous root, of which they seem very fond. If they 

 reach the summit of the hill, after remaining stationary some time, 

 they fly off to another quarter, alighting some distance down, and 

 again picking their way upwards. When walking, they erect their 

 tails, have a rather ungainly gait, and at a little distance have some- 

 thing the appearance of a large grey goose. They are partial to 

 feeding on spots where the sheep have J)een kept at nights when 

 grazing in the summer pastures. These places have been called 

 "tatters" by the shepherds, and the grass on them keeps green 

 and fresh long after the rest of the hill is quite dry and brown. 

 They roost on the rocks and shelves of precipices, and return to 

 one spot many successive nights. 



" Their call is a low soft whistling, occasionally heard at intervals 

 throughout the day, but more generally at daybreak. It is most 

 common in cloudy weather. The first note is considerably pro- 

 longed and followed by a succession of low rapid whistles, and it 

 is by far the most agreeable song of all our game birds. This note 

 is only heard when the bird is at rest ; when alarmed and walking 

 away, it sometime utters at short intervals a single low whistle, and 

 when it gets on the wing the whistles are shrill and very rapid. 

 However far it flies, the whistling is continued until it alights, and 

 for a few seconds afterwards, but then slightly changed in tone to 

 a few notes which seem in a strange manner to express satisfaction 

 at being again on the ground. However odd tlie comparison, I can 

 compare the whistling of these birds when flying and alighting to 

 nothing but the difference of sound produced by the wings of a 

 flock of Pigeons when flying, and when alighting on some spot where 

 they have to flutter a few seconds before they can gain footing. 



" The Jer-moonall is not remarkably ^vild or shy. When ap- 

 proached from below, on a person getting within eighty or a 



